Colorado coaches, students learn about helmet technology after concerns about new statewide program
Among a crowd of Colorado coaches, administrators, parents and students inside Mile High Stadium was a growing curiosity surrounding new technology ready to tackle safety across high school football programs.
"I'm just curious and open-minded about what I can learn," said Avery Worsham, football coach at Denver North High School.
Wednesday evening marked the first of six caravans taking place across Colorado over the next few weeks. These events, hosted by the Broncos Foundation, were created to help educate the high school football community about the recently launched 'All In, All Covered' helmet distribution program.
"We want to make sure that as many schools as possible get these helmets," Bobby Mestas, Director of Youth and High School Football with the Denver Broncos.
It's been two weeks since the Denver Broncos Foundation announced an unprecedented move to provide more than 15,000 Riddell Axiom football helmets for free to high school programs across the state.
However, since the announcement of the program, some districts in the Denver metro area have raised some concerns about how students' medical privacy could be impacted by some of the data analytics these helmets are able to capture.
During Wednesday's caravan, Mestas, and spokespeople from Riddell assured families that schools do not have to opt into 'InSite Analytics Reporting,' if they join the helmet program.
"All of the data that's collected is de-identified and the only data that's given out is what the schools are willing to give out," said Mestas. "And schools don't have to participate in the data portion. We did make that adjustment earlier this week."
Spokespeople from Riddell, the company providing these helmets to school districts, spent the evening demonstrating all the features that make this helmet safer for students to wear on the field.
"The first thing you'll see is what we call surround sound flex panels. So, they're actually four flex panels strategically engineered to the helmet shell, which help reduce impact transfer to the athlete. Additionally, we reimagined the face mask and face mask attachment system," said Erin Griffin, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Riddell.
In addition, some students even got to see what it would be like to have a helmet fitted to their head using Riddell's TrueFit system, which would also be included with each helmet student received.
"We actually take a series of images of an athlete's head and build them a helmet that's configured for their head," said Griffin.
As of this week, over 100 schools have opted into the "All In, All Covered" program. Leaders with the Broncos Foundation and other organizations involved in the program are hoping caravans like this one will encourage more schools to get their students fitted into this cutting-edge technology.
"We had Littleton Public Schools come on board today among others, and we're excited more are continuing to learn," said Mestas.
While many coaches and students are still weighing whether they will choose to suit up in this tech, they say this could be a step forward in making the game more accessible to student athletes.
"I think it'll just help bring more people in and more excitement into the game because all the parents will feel safe allowing their kids to play football," said Worsham.
The next caravan events will be taking place in Colorado Springs on Tuesday, Lamar next Thursday, and then Rifle, Durango and Fort Collins.
